Transcriber's Notes: Every effort has been made to reproduce theoriginal text as printed. Sidenotes and footnotes in the original havebeen moved inline to follow applicable text.
BEING
The Anniversary Fast for the Martyrdom
of King Charles the First.
LONDON: Printed for Jonah Bowyer, at
the Sign of the Rose in Ludgate-Street. 1710.
[2]Garrard, Mayor.
Martis vii. die Februarii, 1709. Annoq; Regni Reginæ Annæ,Magnæ Britanniæ, &c. Octavo.
This Court doth desire Dr. Snape to Print his Sermon, Preach'd at theCathedral Church of St. Paul, before the Lord-Mayor, Aldermen andCitizens of this City, on Monday the Thirtieth of January last,being the Day of Humiliation for the Martyrdom of King Charles theFirst.
Proclaim a Fast, and set Naboth on high among the People:
And set Two Men, Sons of Belial, before him, to bearWitness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and theKing: and then carry him out and stone him, that he may die.
There is scarce any one Instance of the shedding innocent Bloodrecorded in Holy Scripture which has not at some time or other beenapply'd to the Occasion of this Day's Solemnity, even that of ourblessed Saviour not excepted, whose Steps we have with one Voicedeclar'd in the Service of the Church the blessed Martyr cheerfully tohave follow'd. [Note: 2d Collect for the day.] But here indeed itconcerns us to tread warily. We can only affirm of the greatest Saintsand brightest Luminaries of the Church that they have made some faintApproaches toward that great Exemplar, without [4]presuming to equaleither the Merits or the Sufferings of any meer Man to those of ourcrucify'd Redeemer: in all other Parallels there is less Danger ofExcess, since most of 'em will be found, in many Circumstances, to fallshort of the Fact committed on this Day.
Now altho' in such a comparative way of arguing, where we single outsome remarkable Passage from the Records of past Ages, and adapt it,as far as it will naturally bear, to some After-Occurrence that hasfall'n out nearer our own Times, it cannot be expected that boththe Cases should be in all Respects exactly the same, without theleast Variation, yet when we can point out some of the principaland Master-Strokes of each of 'em which have a near Resemblance ofone another, when the Methods and Ways of Acting, the Motives andInducements to it, with other concurrent Circumstances, are the same;